The top line
The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League slammed Elon Musk on Thursday for a series of Holocaust-related jokes he posted on X, his social media platform, just days after After the nonprofit defended a “strange gesture” that others have said. Closely resembles the Nazi salute.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk inside Capital One Arena on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.
AFP via Getty Images
Key facts
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt responded to a series of questions from Musk. Posted Mentioning the names of famous members of the Nazi Party, Rudolf Hess, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, Tweeting On The Billionaire, “The Holocaust Is Not a Joke”
“The Holocaust was a singularly bad event, and to highlight it is inappropriate and offensive,” Greenblatt said.
The official ADL account piled on Greenblatt’s message, posting that such jokes “trivialize the Holocaust” and “only serve to minimize the evil and inhumanity of Nazi crimes, both victims and survivors.” insults the suffering and the memory of the six million Jews killed in the Shoah.”
The rebuttal from Musk, who spent the week defending himself on Twitter against people who accused him of performing a “Seg Heil” salute while on stage at President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, stands in contrast to the organization. His defense after the incident.
When Musk touched the left side of his chest with his right hand. Extension With his arm up, the ADL defended Musk, repeating the motion to the crowd behind him. is saying In an X post he made an “awkward gesture in a moment of passion, not a Nazi salute” and urged “all sides” to “show each other a little grace”.
Neither Greenblatt nor the ADL would comment further on whether they were reconsidering their initial statement.
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Important quote
“Bet you nazi who’s coming,” Musk posted at the end of his post. A series of jokes Thursday.
Surprising fact
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Musk on Thursday, calling him “a great friend of Israel.” Netanyahu said he was being “falsely vilified” in the wake of the incident, and praised Musk for “repeatedly and forcefully asserting Israel’s right to self-defense against genocidal terrorists and regimes.” support those who want to abolish the one and only Jewish state.”
Key background
Musk was on stage at Washington’s Capital One Arena when he made the gesture hintWhich many have said is reminiscent of the “Sieg Heil” salute. Salami was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany illegal Both in Germany and Austria. It can also be prosecuted as hate speech in some other European countries. The move sparked a storm on social media with people condemning her for using the gesture and others accusing her attackers of overblowing a gesture made in the heat of the moment. Several foreign officials and Democratic members of Congress, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, DN.Y. have accused Musk of deliberately giving Nazi salutes, while others, e.g Journalist Batya Ungar-Sargan He said the move sounded like “someone with Asperger’s happily pouring his heart out to a crowd”, accusing critics of “inventing anger”.
Tangent
This is not the first time Musk has been accused of antisemitism. In November 2023, he was called out for publicly supporting an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory popular among white supremacists: that Jewish communities promote “anti-white hatred”. Musk Answered that an X user “told the real truth” after the user claimed that “Jewish communities are pushing the very rhetorical hatred against whites that they claim people want to stop using against them.” The post also contained anti-immigrant sentiments. The Biden White House condemned his endorsement as “promoting anti-Semitism and racist hatred”, though Musk later Refused for being anti-Semitic and said his comments did not refer to all Jewish people, but to groups such as the ADL and other unspecified “Jewish communities”. The post led to several major brands, including Disney and IBM, stopping advertising on the platform. Weeks later, Musk Visited Israel.where he held talks with top leaders, including Netanyahu, and visited a kibbutz that had been attacked by Hamas militants. In January 2024, Visited Kasturi. Admitted to being “speechless” about the location of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and the extent of antisemitism. He said he had seen “almost no antisemitism” in his life and said he was “Jewish by affiliation. I am Jewish by desire.”
